McAliskey Vindicated Again
Tyrone woman Roisín McAliskey and her family can breath a huge sigh of relief tonight (Friday) after a Belfast court turned down a request to extradite her.
The Coalisland mother-of-two was facing charges relating to an IRA attack on a British army base in Germany in 1996 – charges she thought she had conclusively beaten nearly 10 years ago when then British home secretary Jack Straw turned down an extradition request from the German authorities.
Straw based his decision on a lack of evidence and Roisín’s medical condition at the time – she had just spent months on end in British jails and holding centres awaiting knowledge of her fate. Roisín was heavily pregnant during her incarceration and was eventually forced to give birth under armed guard.
Earlier this year, the daughter of veteran civil rights campaigner and socialist republican activist Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey, was forced to relive her ordeal when she was taken from her home by RUC-PSNI officers and other British state agents to face fresh extradition efforts.
Today, Roisín’s nightmare was hopefully ended for good when the presiding judge, a Mr Burgess, agreed with the defence case that it would be “unjust and oppressive” to proceed with extradition.
“Ms McAliskey believed the threat of extradition was behind her from the time in 1998 when the (British) home secretary announced in the House of Commons that he was refusing to extradite her on medical grounds,” Burgess said.
The judge said this was confirmed in Ms McAliskey’s mind by a statement made in the British House of Commons in 2000 by the attorney general that there were no grounds for instituting proceedings against her in Britain or occupied Ireland.
Éirígí spokesperson Daithí Mac An Mháistír welcomed the decision as overdue.
“Today’s outcome must be a massive relief for Roisín and all the McAliskey family. On behalf of Éirígí I would like to extend best wishes and solidarity to them all.
“Roisín McAliskey should never have been in front of a court today or on any other occasion. It was clearly established 10 years ago that she had no case to answer and the decision to let her get on with her life, while welcome, is clearly the least that could have been expected.
“When the British government released Roisín in 1998 any right-thinking human being would have believed they would, after the ordeal they put her through, have left her alone to rebuild a normal life in peace. However, their decision to re-arrest her shows that their attitude towards Irish citizens in relation to concepts of justice and human rights remains rooted in a colonialist mindset.”
Daithí concluded, “What was witnessed today was a narrow escape from a massive miscarriage of justice – only a committed optimist would attribute this to anything more than a technicality.”